How Much Is Enough?

“I don’t know about you,” said that little voice in the back of her brain. “How can you think your relationship with God is really that good? You have been enjoying your life lately just a little too much and for one who says she’s a Christian I don’t think you have been doing enough. Do you?”

Wherever it came from, she heard it loud and clear, and for the next few days she replayed it in her head. So often did she hear it that she became anxious and started to lose her joy and her peace. She finally reached out for help. “What do you think?” she said to a friend. “Should I be concerned that I am not doing enough? I mean I still do X and Y. I just don’t do Z as much as I once was. It is just not very possible to do it right now.”

How much is enough? Are you doing enough right now? Trying googling “not doing enough.” You may be amazed. Who’s not doing enough? The United States, Israelis, Palestinians, Iraqis, somebody’s wife, the Pentagon, the Brown family (OJ’s in-laws), the IRS, Hewlett-Packard’s CEO, wireless companies, the Catholic church, and the Jamaican constitution. And, of course, President Bush. Somebody feels strongly that all of these and more aren’t doing enough.

Christians simply must not play this game. God did not design it. We can never do enough, but that’s not the point. We are saved by grace through our faith in the only one who ever did enough. Give your whole heart to the work of God, but give up keeping score.

Ephesians 2:8-10

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

1 Corinthians 15:9-10

and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

9For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

Philippians 3:7-9

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 

God Does Not Tire of Us

Those of you who have listened very long to this Web cast or read my book, Mind Change, know that I find in the Old Testament Psalms some of my greatest encouragement and inspiration. I decided a year or two ago to read one psalm each day and make some notes as I went along.

Who is King and Who is Not

From time to time with a Web cast like this one, that might seem to someone to represent another positive thinking approach, I think it is a good idea to remind listeners of something. Everything we try to say here is built on the ultimate and most vital mind change of all.

Hope for the Simple

In Psalm 116:6, the psalmist writes:

The Lord preserves the simple;

I was brought low, and He saved me. (NASB)

Life can be very challenging and I can wonder sometimes if I am up for it.  Actually “sometimes” is not the best word. If I look back at things I have felt over the years or read through some old prayer journals, the word “often” is probably a lot more accurate.